Status and visibility
An event's visibility is decided by two independent things: its WordPress publication status, and its end date. Understanding that they are separate resolves most "why can I not see it" questions.
Publication status
Events are ordinary WordPress content and use the normal statuses:
| Status | Who can see it |
|---|---|
| Published | Everyone |
| Draft | Editors only |
| Pending review | Editors only |
| Private | Signed-in users with permission |
| Scheduled | Nobody until its publish date |
| Trash | Nobody; recoverable until the trash is emptied |
Event lists, the search form and the calendar all show published events only.
The end date is the second filter
Even when published, an event's presence in lists depends on its end date:
- the default event list shows events whose end date is today or later;
- once the end date has passed, the event drops out of upcoming lists on its own;
- the registration button switches to its finished label and is disabled.
Nothing has to be unpublished when an event finishes. That is the intended behavior and it is why the end date must always be set.
Past events remain reachable at their own URL and remain in the calendar.
Scheduling a publication
Two different dates, easy to confuse:
| Date | Controls |
|---|---|
| Publish date | When the event page becomes visible on the site |
| Event start date | When the event happens |
Scheduling the publish date is how you prepare an announcement in advance: the event exists, is complete, and appears at the moment you choose.
They are unrelated. An event published today can happen next year, and an event scheduled to publish next month can happen the week after.
Four working states
| State | Publication | End date |
|---|---|---|
| Being prepared | Draft | Any |
| Announced, upcoming | Published | In the future |
| Finished, still readable | Published | In the past |
| Withdrawn | Draft, or trashed | Any |
Cancelling an event is a content decision, not a status: publish the cancellation on the page so visitors who have the link — or a printed reference to it — learn why. Unpublishing a cancelled event leaves them with a missing page.
Visibility and registration
Registration follows the same rules:
- a draft event cannot be registered for, because visitors cannot reach it;
- a published, finished event shows the finished label and refuses registration;
- Disable signup button hides the button on a published, upcoming event, which is how you announce something before opening registration.
Deleting an event
Trashing an event removes it from lists immediately and keeps it recoverable until the trash is emptied.
Before deleting an event that had registrations:
- Export the attendee list.
- Decide whether attendees need to be told anything.
- Then trash the event.
Attendee data lives on the event; deleting the event permanently takes the list with it.
Verify
- Confirm a draft event is not visible signed out.
- Confirm a published upcoming event appears in the list.
- Set an event's end date to yesterday and confirm it leaves the upcoming list.
- Confirm the same event is still reachable at its URL, with the finished button label.
- Confirm a scheduled event appears at its publish time.